Reference no: EM133144614
Overview
Directions
WABA, the We All Belong Alliance, is expanding their work and hiring new employees. Anne Admin, the Director of WABA (and your boss) wants to provide new employees with "on-boarding" materials as they begin their work at WABA. Leadership at WABA knows that, as a non-profit public entity, it is important to support and maintain an ethical work culture among all employees. So, Anne especially wants these materials to highlight the importance of ethical behaviors in Public Administration. The projects in this Goal will explore key components of Public Administration in general with a special focus on the ethical administration of public policy.
Anne Admin, your boss at WABA, has asked for your help in supporting a new "Culture of Ethics" movement at WABA.
First, to kick off the "Culture of Ethics," Anne has organized the production of a set of materials for WABA employees featuring historical and ethical perspectives on the key Public Administration theories in the United States (Classical Public Administration, New Public Management Theory and Postmodern Public Administration Theory). First, she'd like you to apply elements of these theories to help identify reasons why unethical behavior might occur. Then, describe environments that promote ethical behavior. Finally, she wants you to compare and contrast the components of a theory.
Part One
She'd like you to start by creating a document to help new employees successfully apply key Public Administration theories in their work. Consult the Project Resources to first identify the elements of the key theories. The first section of your document will provide each theory and provide examples of their application. You can use real or fictitious government agencies in your scenarios.
Classical Public Administration
Choose three of the ten organizational principles defined by Gulick and provide examples of how these organizational structures might promote ethical behavior within a public administration setting like WABA.
Example: Using the principle of creating coordination committees, the Director of Office AAA in Agency ABC is in charge of establishing guidelines for how funds will be distributed for Project X. By having a committee, decision-making would be in the hands of more than one person, thereby creating a process for the distribution of funds that would be more fair and equitable. This approach leaves less chance for real and/or perceived improprieties.
New Public Management (NPM) Theory
Using three of the eight criticisms of the NPM theory: describe an advantage and a disadvantage for each in the US. Consider ethical behavior in your descriptions.
Example: Using the second criticism regarding decentralization, giving public administration managers decision-making authority would be an advantage because the managers could then be more efficient. However, decentralization might lead to unethical behavior, which is more likely to occur when others are not involved in the decision-making process.
Postmodern Public Administration Theory
Provide examples of how three of the key elements of the postmodernist approach to public administration might promote ethical behavior within a public administration setting.
Example: The Impact of Postmodernism on Public Sector Leadership Practices resource provides "a decentralized, flat, organizational structure" as a Postmodern change to public organization. An employee at WABA, which has a somewhat hierarchical structure, might be less likely to report a case of misappropriated funds to management if managers and front-line employees have differing perceptions toward compliance and ethics.
Part Two
As part of this work, your boss has asked that you also consider the core ideas of accountability and responsiveness within public organizations and describe ways of fostering them. A second section of your document will cover fostering accountability and responsiveness in public organizations. Using two of the five suggestions provided in the 5 Ways to Improve Citizen Engagement Initiatives resource, provide two different scenarios of how these actions could increase accountability and responsiveness in public administration settings. You may use real or fictitious government organizations/agencies in your examples.
Creating Your Document
- In the first section of your document, describe each of the three given Public Administration theories in your own words, identify the key elements (components, principles or themes) of each theory and provide the requested specialized information and examples, as described above.You may use real or fictitious government organizations/agencies.
- In a second section of the document, use two of the five suggestions from the 5 Ways to Improve Citizen Engagement Initiatives resource to create two of your own scenarios. In your scenarios, describe how the suggestions you chose could increase accountability and responsiveness in public administration settings. You may use real or fictitious government organizations/agencies.